


Gorion's Ward

by Seika



Series: Titles [1]
Category: Baldur's Gate
Genre: CHARNAME gets stroppy, Gen, Id Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13194342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seika/pseuds/Seika
Summary: What to call a Bhaalspawn?





	Gorion's Ward

Eventually, it seemed like he’d had enough.

Gold flashed in Arad’s eyes, and he rose from the _throne of truth_ , the artifact’s binding adamantine chains warping and tearing and shattering like so much iron from Nashkel all those years ago.

His voice poisonous and low, he hissed, “I humoured you for a little bit. I was _polite_. I was _nice_. I think that’s pretty commendable, given you decided to magically kidnap and interrogate me. But I am fucking done with this.

“I have been done with this since Galvarey tried exactly this same idiocy not two years ago. You heard about that, right? Addled fool wanted to stick me in an _imprisonment_ spell for a few millennia. And, for it, the Spectral Harpists hung him out to dry, I took his head, and old Elminster condemned him after death. How did the curse go? ‘His harp is unstrung, his dreams are dead, and his songs are unsung.’ Now, seeing as you call yourselves friends of Gorion’s, I’d have reckoned you’d have taken some note of that, and how it got Jaheira her Harper pin back, but perhaps I’m too _innocent_ if I think that, hm?”

“H-h-how,” one asked with a trembling finger pointing at their prize interrogation tool.

Arad rolled his eyes at the diversion. “Oh, don’t think your idiotic notions have any truth in them. There’s nothing of Bhaal” - he spat - “left in me. I’m certainly no secret avatar of him risen to haunt the Realms again. But you live with the power of a god flowing through you long enough, and it leaves marks. Ask all of Mystra’s favourites you’re meant to be listening to, unless you’re afraid they’d have no more truck with this than I bloody well do.”

They were silent and his smile was cold.

“Now, bend your ears, and I might pretend to imagine you’ve still got something of the Harpers left in you.

“I’ve been called names upon names upon names. ‘Brat’ and ‘bastard’ I heard pretty early, and still haven’t stopped hearing, to be honest. Tame enough, in the end, though. Now, if you really want to be insulted, go find a drow Matron Mother and upend her scheme of the last century. That’s the way to learn some proper curses.

“On the better side, you might remember that I’m a saviour to villages and cities from the Chionthar to the Shining Sea: I’m called the Hero of Gullykin and of Nashkel and of Imnesvale, of Trademeet and of Suldanesselar and of Baldur’s Gate. I uncovered traitors, delved into dark mines and ancient ruins, and brought peace by blade or by word, and I earnt those titles proudly.

“Of course, the tarrasque is waiting patiently in the room. Alaundo was calling me names centuries ago, and no-one’s stopped judging me for my godsire since. I’m the Bhaalspawn, the Child of Murder, the Son of Bhaal. I am the One Foreseen and the One Foretold, the Crossroads, the Inheritor, the Shaper of History. All very serious, all very doom-laden.

“But you know what the _other_ Bhaalspawn called me? Who I was to my so-called brothers and sisters: the enemies I fought with life and soul on the line, the siblings who couldn’t help but understand me as no-one else ever could? Who I was to Sarevok first, and then to Illasera and Yaga-Shura and Sendai and Abazigal and Balthazar? And do you know what I called myself?

“Gorion’s Ward. That name is what they saw in me, and that name is what I saw - and hoped for and strove for - in myself. And you may say it was a convenience, amongst those for whom “Bhaalspawn” could have meant anyone around their table, besides a dozen other targets they were hunting at the time. But I think it really did mean many of the same things for us.

“It meant that Gorion had rescued me from the cult of Murder at an early age. It meant that he raised me in Candlekeep, the home of wisdom and learning and preservation. It meant that he died for me, and that he called me “child” with his last words. It meant that even after his death, Harpers of good and true intent looked after me and guided me. It meant that he loved me and I loved him back. And, from all of that, it meant _defiance_ of Bhaal and of his cruel will and of any that would see them through.

“‘Gorion’s Ward’, more even than Arad, is my name. I honour my true father by it, and you - you alleged friends of his - you dishonour him by every paranoid plan and glance you make even while I’m standing right in front of you! I see them! Each one of them says ‘Gorion could not overcome the taint of murder. He was too old, too weak, too soft. He was a fool, and we alone of the Harpers are so wise as to see it.’

“By your actions and words, you have told me these things. You are not wise. If you are Harpers, your harps are unstrung. And not now and not _ever_ have you been friends of my father.”

**Author's Note:**

> [Also on Tumblr](http://thebleakcabal.tumblr.com/post/169087798467/fanfic-titles-gorions-ward), if that's anyone's preferred reading medium.


End file.
